It is common to use fairly large stationary signs, such as billboards, alongside roads to catch the attention of passers-by for advertising and the like. Neon signs and billboards have been used extensively to attract attention. Moreover, it is also fairly typical to see such signs and billboards utilizing electrically powered means to create movement by moving a member mounted to the sign or attempting to create the illusion of movement by causing lights to sequentially flash on to create an image, such as with marquee signs which create the appearance of the occurrence of writing of a word(s) across the sign by sequentially lighting lights forming the letters of the word(s). Further, it is common to use electric flashing lights to attract the attention of an observer such as along roadways where construction is occurring, where dangerous sections of road are upcoming, and alongside airport runways and the like. They are also commonly used with emergency vehicles. While the use of such electrically powered attention-getters can be effective, they are subject to failure, require large energy costs and can be fairly irritating and offensive to an observer's normal vision, such as by impairing their vision on roadways when emergency vehicles pass with their electrically powered lights flashing.
It is also known to use stationary reflectors alongside roads, particularly on road signs to attract the attention of passers-by. Further, although rotating signs are known, they do not flash on either side of their display area or central axis. Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,179 a rotatable wind-driven sign is disclosed having three vertical panels with reflective material on one panel spaced vertically relative to reflective material on the other panels such that upon rotation of the panels the reflective material can give the appearance of vertical motion only along the axis of rotation as the sign rotates. Because of the use of the panels' mounting reflective material, the viewing angle in which the reflective material is visible on one panel at a certain time is limited to approximately 160.degree.. Another problem is that the '179 device requires that the sign rotate at an optimum speed to obtain a flashing effect--too slow and there will be little or no flashing; and, too fast, and the reflective indicia becomes a blur with the rotating panels appearing to a solid cylinder.
The above-described panels slightly overlap one another. The overlapping portions are intended to catch wind to rotate the sign. A problem with this design of the '179 patent is that by utilizing overlapping portions which project only slightly from the panel from which they overlap, the wind-catching ability of the overlapping portion is reduced. Further, any increase in the size of the overlap portion detracts from the aesthetics of the sign. In addition, by the use of panels, the appearance of indicia movement is somewhat limited by the size of the panels. Finally, the '179 device is a fairly bulky sign that is not readily transported to and from sites of use.